“If you didn’t have standard pop music as a reference, what would your pop music sound like?” That was the question Johnathan Bates, the force behind electro pop experiment Big Black Delta, asked himself after leaving his former band Mellowdrone. Bates’ penchant for throwing caution to the wind seems to have taken root in his childhood. Born in Venezuela, he moved to Miami at the age of seven before heading to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. After dropping out, he traveled west to Los Angeles, couch surfing until he formed Mellowdrone, putting a couple of EPs independently and recording an album for Columbia Records. However, he soon tired of the conventional band format and struck out on his own, Big Black Delta (also known as BBD for short)being the latest manifestation of his restless personality. Indies And The Underground chatted with Bates about early musical influences, his [...] Continue...

Electro pop act Big Black Delta began as an experiment, when LA transplant and Mellowdrone founder Jonathan Bates decided he needed a break from the band aesthetic. Buying a used laptop from friend Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails, Sonoio) and began playing with sound, twisting, bending and contorting to create a musical style not bound by gravity or any one instrument. “Give me anything, and I’ll make it work. Especially if it’s stringed,”Bates says. Continue...